IBM has launched an HTML5 authoring tool for creating interfaces and has made it an open source project hosted by the Dojo Foundation.

Maqetta, a corruption of the Spanish word "maqueta" meaning "a model" or "a mock-up" and pronounced "maketta" is an open-source project for HTML5. It provides WYSIWYG creation of HTML5 user interfaces using drag-and-drop design and supports both desktop and mobile user interfaces.

As well as allowing the programmer to use HTML controls on the page it also allows creation and editing of JavaScript Widgets. This is a great step forward but it could have been implemented in HTML4 and it is a mystery why it has taken so long for anyone to realise that such an editor is possible and a good idea.

The Preview 1 release of the Maqetta application is available at http://maqetta.org.

The Maqetta application itself is authored in HTML, and therefore runs in the browser without requiring additional plug-ins or downloads. Maqetta is available under an open-source license. Being open source, users can download the source code and install it on their own server, customize the code to fit their needs and contribute improvements to the open-source project.

Maqetta features include:

• a WYSIWYG visual page editor for drawing out user interfaces;
• a drag/drop mobile UI authoring within an exact-dimension device silhouette, such as the silhouette of an iPhone;
• simultaneous editing in either design or source views;
• deep support for CSS styling (the application includes a full CSS parser/modeler);
• a mechanism for organizing a UI prototype into a series of "application states" (aka "screens" or "panels"), which allows a UI design to define interactivity without programming;
• a Web-based review and commenting feature where the author can submit a live UI mock-up for review by his team members;
• a "wire-framing" feature that allows UI designers to create UI proposals that have a hand-drawn look;
• a theme editor for customizing the visual styling of a collection of widgets;
• export options that allow for smooth hand-off of the UI mock-ups into leading developer tools such as Eclipse; and
• its code base has a toolkit-independent architecture that allows for plugging in arbitrary widget libraries and CSS themes.

Currently you can download it and host it on your own server or make use of the hosting provided at Maqetta.org.

Further information